


Ashes, Ashes

by hamiltone



Category: Hamilton - Fandom, Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Angst, Crying, Disabilities, Doctors, Fire, Fluff, Hospital, Hurt/Comfort, Rehab, Wheelchairs, eventually, firefighter / doctor au, injuries, lots o' cryin, the accident™
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-01-10
Packaged: 2018-09-16 13:11:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9273281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hamiltone/pseuds/hamiltone
Summary: Alexander was doing his job without a care in the world, helping Thomas ease back into his job.Thomas was attempting to get used to his new life with a prosthetic arm, now back and enjoying his time as a firefighter.Little did they know, their life would change even more drastically on one fateful day;and it was all because some man wrongly disposed of a cigarette.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Midnigtartist](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Midnigtartist/gifts).



“Where we headed?” Thomas shouted over the sirens to Lee, who hung off the other side of the truck as the vehicle raced to its destination and ran red lights. It was nothing unusual for him to be standing on the edge of a fire truck; he’d done this tens of times before. Knowing New York, it was probably just a smoke alarm acting up because an oven steamed. Probably nothing-

 

“Lower Manhattan Hospital.”

Thomas’ world shattered.

-

Alex’s world was in flames. 

As he attempted to find a way out of the building, the smoke clouded his vision and filled his lungs. He coughed with a slight wheezing, just trying to see some exit, any escape. The trauma ward burned around him, most signs incomprehensible and beams falling to the ground. Noticing a mostly clear corridor behind him, he began to run towards it, and he could see the outside, and he was so close-

Suddenly, a beam collapsed from the ceiling, him not noticing until it crushed him to the ground and trapped his legs. He screamed for a second before the smoke made him start hacking once again. The left side of his face was pressed against the ground as he began to cough blood, skin beginning to burn at the touch of the boiling hot surface. His legs were quite literally on fire as they remained unmoving under the contraption of metal and paint. Where was everyone? They’d left him behind, he assumed. He was going to die here, and he knew it well. 

The overwhelming pain engulfed his senses, him unable to do anything but simply lay there as he slowly expired.

-

Thomas raced into the building with an axe in hand, breaths labored and heavy. He needed to find Alexander, and he didn’t know if he was even alive, and, oh God; what if he was dead-

“No way...” Thomas whispered as his foot crunched against a pair of glasses. He knew all too well whose those were. 

As he looked up from the pair of spectacles, he came across a limp body lying under a pile of rubble. He nearly screamed as he ran over to the body- to Alexander- and shoved away the rubble, unable to get his legs out from the beam. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he looked at Alex’s face. 

Half of his face was burnt to the bone and bubbling from being on the stovetop-like floor all of that time, him in too deep of a state of blood loss to even care. His eye that hadn't been burnt to the crisp was glazed over as he stared at Thomas with a longing expression before coughing up a lung.

Thomas, not thinking twice, took off his oxygen mask and secured it on Alexander’s face, picking him up-

Well, almost picking him up. 

He struggled as Alex's legs remained trapped under the beam, Alex’s face going from blank to shocked and his eyes widening as the pain that had seemingly numbed from his near-unconscious state overwhelmed him once more. Thomas grimaced when he heard Alex seemingly attempting to shout something to him, voice too distorted and muffled by the mask to be understood. He knew that getting his legs out from under the beam before the building collapsed was near impossible on his own, but he had to try- 

“Get off him!”

Thomas turned at the sound of a voice, only to find five other firefighters, unrecognizable with the heavy gear they wore. Thomas stared dumbly, one shorter firefighter shaking their head, rushing over, and quickly lecturing him.

“Get out right now, before your lungs collapse from smoke. Lee’s right there, he’ll help you!” Thomas recognized the voice as Peggy- she was stern when she had to be, he found out. She pushed him away to Lee and caught Alex before ushering the rest of the fighters over, them together lifting the beam and picking Alex up from the rubble. 

As Thomas was rushed out of the burning facility by Lee, he realized how hard it was to breathe. He began to wheeze and cough as he caught a gasp of fresh air, paramedics immediately coming over and rushing him over to an open ambulance. He didn’t bother to reject the oxygen mask, didn’t even bother to talk. He was too scared for Alex to do anything but sit there, wondering if his world, his everything to him would make it out alive. 

-

“Thomas?”

Thomas perked his head up at the sound of his name. He felt odd sitting in a waiting room, in a different hospital, and as a visitor, no less. He was quite used to being in charge, to being the fighter that comforted people about right now.

He felt horrible about Alex. He could’ve gotten there quicker; he could’ve done something to stop him from being so badly hurt. Now, Alex could be permanently disabled, or worse… 

“Yes?” He replied alertly, walking up to the desk where he’d been called. The nurse behind it gave him a solemn look. 

“Alexander can see you now. He’s somewhat stable, but try your best not to disturb him. His adoptive parents and sibling were in there a few minutes ago, and they weren’t very cautious with that rule, so try and set a better example, please.” At this, the nurse sighed. “But just- don’t be surprised if the man you see in that bed looks nothing like the one you know... okay?”

Thomas raised an eyebrow at her remark, concerned. How bad was it…?

Suddenly, Alex’s family came walking down the hall as quickly as possible, his near tears father Washington comforting his crying wife as Hercules looked upon the scene in sadness. Thomas’ guilt overwhelmed him even more. 

Trying to get his mind off it, even if just for a few seconds, he motioned for the nurse to lead him down the hall to the ICU. The nurse- Thomas noticed his nametag read ‘John’- nodded, stepping away from the desk and beginning down the hall. Thomas followed close behind, quickly coming to their destined location. John gestured for him to go in first, him taking a deep breath before stepping inside. He’d been in an ICU many times before, hundreds; he could do this-

The sight of the tens of victims of the fire made his confidence wither and heart shatter.

Patients were lined up in cots with curtains separating each of them. They all were horribly injured, burns making them look inhuman. As he continued down the hallway, he grew more and more anxious to see Alex-

“Excuse me… You missed Alex’s cot.”

Thomas turned, only to find John standing at someone’s cot. Someone with a half-bandaged face, a bare chest with gauze covering horrid burns rather poorly, an oxygen tube hanging limply from their mouth, and- seemingly- an endless amount of wires coming out of their arms laid there. They looked far from well and far from human, more like some kind of messed up experiment. The monitor reading their heartbeat beeped in an unsteady, slow, monotone way, that, the clean white walls, and the practically lifeless figure in the bed making the situation uneasy. However, as he stared at the face for longer and longer, their features became more recognizable. The freckles, the jet black hair that remained on the unscorched side of their head, their once olive skin now a waxy yellow with just a hint of what it used to be… 

They were Alexander. 

“Is- is he-”

“We don’t know,” John intervened, seeming to get what he was trying to imply. “He lost a lot of blood, his lungs are still on the verge of collapse, and there’s only so much we can do to the burns to prevent infection… that, and his legs were shattered under the force of the beam. We don’t know if he’ll make it through the night. I- I’m sorry.”

An eerie silence filled the room. 

The beeping seemed far more haunting now than ever.


End file.
